October 2nd, 2012 | By Tom Christiansen
Tagged in: Braid | Fez | indie game the movie | super meat boy
After two successful Kickstarter campaigns, which raised a total of $94,676, James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot released Indie Game: The Movie this past June. The documentary first appeared to the public back in January, at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received notable acclaim and won the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award.
While Indie Game: The Movie has been available to the public since June through Steam (being the first film available through Steam), Amazon, iTunes, the Google Play store, and YouTube, Netflix is the first to offer Indie Game: The Movie through a streaming service.
Indie Game: The Movie documents the struggles of independent game developers Jonathan Blow (Braid), Phil Fish (Fez), and Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes (Super Meat Boy), as they painstakingly developed and anxiously released their respective games.
From over 300 hours of recorded footage, Swirsky and Pajot produced a concise 96 minute documentary which tells the stories of the three developers during various stages of their game’s development.
The soundtrack to Indie Game: The Movie is the work of Jim Guthrie, the composer to Superbrothers: Sword and Swocery EP.
Indie Game: The Movie holds universal high ratings: 8/10 on IMDB, 4/5 on Netflix, 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 9/10 from The New York Times.
Both James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot are at Iceland’s Reykjavik International Film Festival this week. There will be a screening of Indie Game: The Movie, as well as a post-screening Q&A session. The duo will also be participating on panels discussing digitial distribution, and an “extended talk” about the production of the film.
The official website for Indie Game: The Movie is selling pre-orders for physical DVDs and Blu-rays of the documentary, as well as a $9.99 digital download of the documentary.
Tom Christiansen (227 posts)
The Editor in Chief of IGM, Tom is essentially a nerdy Viking. He has a near constant craving for burgers and beer, and satisfies his instinct to pillage and plunder through video games. Tom stands tall, bearded, and doesn't care much for small talk. He loves talking about indie games though, so never hesitate to tweet him: @TomScott90 or email him: tom@indiegamemag(dot)com.